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Friday, July 04, 2008

Rust Dye Shibori

I have been experimenting with combining a shibori technique and the Rust-Tex Trees Technique. Shibori is a Japanese word for shaped resists. The particular technique I have been playing around with is a pole wrap. You wrap a string around a fabric that is wound around a pole, trying to keep the spacing of the string as even as possible. As the string reaches the bottom of the pole you push the fabric toward the top of the pole so you have more space to continue wrapping the string. After the fabric is all smooched up you dye it either by submerging it in a dye bath or by painting dye on it. Because I am a rust dyer I put a layer of steel wool under a silk satin scarf and used copper wire instead of string.

Here is what it looked like after the wrapping was done.

When it looked like the picture below I knew it was time to unwrap it.

9 comments:

Judy Sall
said...

Hi, Lois. Your shibori rust-dyes are beautiful! I was wondering if this process stiffens the fabric? I have a tank top that I got rust spots on from spring clamps, and the fabric 'hand' has changed. Does that happen with your fabric?I have 'rust-dyeing' on my list of things to try, hopefully this summer, and I love looking at what you have done!

Lois, your shibori is beautiful!What causes the blue color in your second picture? I love the blue and rust orange color together. If I was to dye a piece of fabric with fiber reactive dyes (MX), should I dye the piece first and then rust it, or vice versa?Kathy

Dear Judy,If the hand of the fabric changes it is because you have left it to rust too long and the rust particles are permanently attached to your fabric. the fabric in those places will continue to deteriorate. OR you have not properly wash it. I put my rust dyed fabric through the wash machine.